Oscar Ratings Up This Year!

The ratings for this year’s Oscars telecast were even better than the Nielsen Company initially thought.

Nielsen says 43.7 million people tuned in to ABC on Sunday night for the award show — 700 thousand more than previously estimated. It ranks as the most-watched Oscars telecast since 2000.

Ellen DeGeneres hosted the show, at which 12 Years a Slave was named best picture.

DeGeneres’ appearance at the ceremony benefited her daytime talk show the next day. The live edition of The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Monday earned the program’s highest ratings in its 11-year history. Her guests were Oscar winners Cate Blanchett, JaredLeto and Lupita Nyong’o, plus the man who delivered pizza to the stars during the Academy Awards telecast.

ABC averaged the most viewers of any primetime network for the week ending Sunday. CBS was second, followed by NBC, Fox, Univision, the CW, ION Television and Telemundo.

Here are the top 10 primetime network and cable programs for the week of February 24-March 2, according to the Nielsen Company: